Who will be the 2012 GOP presidential candidate?

WASHINGTON – Mitt Romney on Wednesday plans to travel near the site of this summer’s Democratic National Convention, aiming to give a “prebuttal” to President Obama’s nomination acceptance speech in Charlotte – nearly five months before it is scheduled to occur.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee is planning to deliver the speech at A Roof with a View, a reception area that happens to be across the street from the Bank of America Stadium, where Obama will speak in September.

It is one of a series of events that Romney and Obama have done to draw contrasts with and negative attention to their opponent.

It will also be one of Romney’s first campaign trips to North Carolina, a swing state that is expected to play an outsized role in the general election.

Obama, who narrowly won the state four years ago, has field offices and campaign volunteers already working the state. His campaign also staged their convention in Charlotte, hoping to get a bounce with North Carolinians two months before voters head to the polls.

Romney is planning to deliver the speech between fund-raisers, one in Raleigh and one in Charlotte.

The Republican National Convention is in Tampa, Fla., at the end of August.